


take two

by kittercatters



Category: Warriors - Erin Hunter
Genre: Dark Forest (Warriors), Gen, Murder, Omen of the Stars: Book 6: The Last Hope, Scene Rewrite, Time Shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-16 16:34:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29456829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kittercatters/pseuds/kittercatters
Summary: Beetlewhisker gets another shot.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	take two

**Author's Note:**

> fun fact: this was actually written like two years ago to the day! i deleted it oops but i rewrote it this time so it’s not QUITE as terrible  
> tho it’s still not great  
> basically beetlewhisker is a character who died IN FRONT OF THE POV CHARACTER and then they BRING HIM UP LATER AMONG THE DEAD but somehow he PHYSICALLY APPEARS WITH DIALOGUE in a later book. this is a classic example of the erins just. not giving a shit about canon but i thought it’d be funny if it was something more dramatic lol  
> basically just reuploading it because SOMEONE gave it kudos last time so that means (1) person likes it and that’s enough

“Victory over what?” The silver-and-white she-cat said, her voice clipped.

“Our enemies,” Brokenstar growled, his voice echoing through the clearing. He surveyed the clearing, watching the trainees like a hawk, his fierce gaze pointing out every insecurity. There was a quality to his stare that gave Beetlewhisker chills.

“Our courage will be tested but we will be ready.” He hissed, his breath foul and smelling of crowfood even from a foxlength away. Beetlewhisker started at this, digging his claws further into the suffocating muck beneath him. He trained here to make himself stronger, to increase his skills, to protect his clanmates! What enemies?

A wave of uneasiness swept through him. He wasn’t quite sure why, but the marshy soil beneath his paws seemed to be sucking him down all of a sudden, keeping him firmly pressed to the ground despite his protests. He quashed the feeling

“Enemies?” Beetlewhisker stretched his muzzle forward, curious despite the repressed dread. The red mist drew closer, making the figures of the dark forest cats seem taller, more other - he hadn’t been born in the old forest, and they reminded him of the tales Icewing had told him as a kit. Tales of impossibly large beasts, lions and tigers and leopards fighting and warring in the forests before cats had ever stepped foot there. It was not a comforting reminder. “What enemies?”

Mapleshade twisted her head toward him, the tortoiseshell queen’s face contorted into something that looked to be an echo of amusement. She blinked at him dubiously. “Don’t you know yet?” She rasped, her voice having the echoed quality of all the cats who spent their time in The Place of No Stars. She flicked her tail dismissively. I can see through her, Beetlewhisker noted absently. He curled his tail to the ground.

Mapleshade stepped forward, shoving her muzzle in his face. The bare tree branches seemed to weave together above him, trapping him in the starless undergrowth. “Have your clanmates never doubted you even though you were right? Has Mistystar never acted like a mouse-heart, siding with weaker cats while punishing the strong? Have your clan mates never treated you like a kit when you are more skillful and dangerous than they could even imagine? I don’t know how you can bear returning every sunrise to feed and protect such feeble creatures!”

Beetlewhisker bristled, lashing his tail. “My clanmates are not feeble or mouse-brained! Mistystar is noble. If she sides with the weak, it’s because the weak need our protection!”

Out of the corner of his eye, Tigerstar’s sun-colored eyes flashed dangerously. His claws flexed, scoring scratch marks into the dirt. Beetlewhisker couldn’t help but unsheathe his claws, suddenly apprehensive. “The weak should be left to fend for themselves.” The enormous tom rumbled, drawing a tongue over his fangs.

Beetlewhisker only barely blinked back his shock. “But that’s the opposite of everything the warrior code teaches us!” Brokenstar lowered his head and spoke- much quieter than before, but with an undercurrent of rage beneath the whispered purr.

”The warrior code teaches you how to be weak.” His orange eyes glittered dangerously in the shadowed woods. Beetlewhisker took a step back, his paws only pressing deeper into the sludge of the forest floor.

“It teaches us to be strong!” Beetlewhisker said. “I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but you’ll never make me despise the warrior code, or my Clan!” He stepped forward towards the grizzled brown tabby, rage visible in every hair on his muzzle. “My Clan thinks it’s being targeted by rogues because of you. They’re frightened by our nighttime visits to their territory. I don’t want to be part of that.”

Beetlewhisker’s voice softened. “I appreciate all you’ve taught me, I really do. You’ve made me a stronger warrior than I could have ever dreamed of being, but I can’t stay here. I must leave and protect my Clan. I won’t be coming here again.” He finished, letting out a breath before turning and padding away, shouldering past Hawkfrost and Applefur.

He heard a low hiss from behind him. He turned to see Brokenstar, ears flattened and claws unsheathed, looking more dangerous than he’d ever seen him. His very image seemed to flicker- his clear orange eyes marred by one long slash across his wide muzzle, dripping crimson- before flashing back to normal so fast he couldn’t be sure anything had changed at all.

”No cat leaves the Dark Forest unless I say so. Your loyalty is to us now.” Beetlewhisker paused, glancing over his shoulder.

“My loyalty is to RiverClan, just as it has always been. You promised me that coming here would make me stronger for my Clanmates. It has, and I’m grateful, but you must have known that I’d leave eventually.”

Brokenstar’s eyes glinted menacingly, and a twisted sneer spread over his muzzle. “You really are dumb, aren’t you?”

Beetlewhisker’s fur spiked, trying desperately to appear threatening, but compared to the gargantuan tabby before him, he was nothing more than an errant kit- and they both knew it. “Not as dumb as you hoped!” He growled, trying to muster all the bravery in his heart, but it seemed to have left him the moment he needed it most. “I’m going, and you can’t stop me.”

In a flash, Brokenstar shot from the circle of Dark Forest cats and blocked his path.

Applefur’s tail trembled. “Don’t go, Beetlewhisker. You’ve got friends here.” Her mew strained, the ingrained cheerfulness paling next to the fear in her eyes.

”Thanks, Applefur.” He nodded to the ShadowClan cat. “But I have to go. This is the right time for me to leave.” He purred, trying to sound reassuring.

”Really?” Brokenstar’s growl sharpened into a screech as he reared up on his hind legs. His shadow, already immense, now stretched across the clearing, blotting out the already dim light that trickled down from the starless sky. He dove for Beetlewhisker, his claws outstretched and fangs bared. He didn’t resemble a cat or any animal of the sort- he appeared a monstrous apparition of shadows and claws.

His eyes widened in horror, putting up his paws to fend off the vicious tomcat, but Brokenstar knocked him off his feet with a fierce swipe. He staggered to his paws, blood streaming from his nose.

“Starclan help me!”

"You think StarClan listens to what happens here?” Brokenstar hissed, his face lit up in a brutal grin. Beetlewhisker could barely struggle as the grotesque brown tabby clamped his jaws around his neck as if he were nothing more than prey to be tossed aside. His eyes glittered like pinpoints of flame, and Brokenstar lifted his head, twisting his neck around with a sickening crack.

He heard nothing after that, and felt nothing, his vision bleeding into nonsensical shapes and colors. Eventually, there was nothing at all besides the cold.

——

Beetlewhisker felt cool grass against his paws. He opened his eyes to see a forest, pristine and green and sunny. Rays of light faded through every perfectly formed branch. Starclan, he thought in amazement. He moved foreward, bounding through the grass.

But the forest never got any closer. The trees always stayed so far away. He tried and tried but no matter how far he ran, he never moved anywhere. He eventually collapsed, panting restlessly on the grassy ground. It seemed to be marshier, now that  
he thought about it. He stumbled upwards suddenly.

He turned and stared back, only to see a forest full of bare trees, with branches reaching upwards like claws, trying desperately to capture the stars that weren’t there. Dead ground laid beneath them. A bolt of horror struck through him. No - he can’t be -

This is his punishment, for training with in the Place of No Stars. He is to be sent there. His fate flashes before him - eternity, hungry, wandering, training other wayward kits to be as malicious as he’ll grow to become until he would eventually fade away into something less than a shadow when nobody bothered to remember him. He can’t. He won’t.

But Starclan has rejected him. He noted the ephemeral yellow mist which coated the ground here. There’s no going forward. He’d heard, once, in a tale that an elder had told that cats that had been astray from Starclan, yet not completely monstrous, were trapped in a sort of inbetween state - not able to advance forward, but not sent completely to the dark forest.

Alone. No clanmates, no anyone.

He can’t - but he did this to himself.

He wished he wished he wished more than anything he could go back and tell himself to just play along with Brokenstar’s demented little game. This is all his fault.

He buried his head in his paws.

The faint sounds of the field around around him - wind, and the soft muttering of prey that he knew he would never find - grew distant and eventually altogether absent. The marshy soil beneath his paws faded away too, replaced by hard stone and the sound of dripping water. He curls further into himself, certain that this was more of his divine punishment, until a fat droplet of water hits him in the head and he’s forced to blink his eyes open. At first, all he sees is blackness. But as the seconds turn into minutes, the faint outline of a cave wall appears.

There’s almost no light. He must be deep, deep underground. But then again, there’s the faintest source of light from... somewhere. And also the faint sound of water. He stumbled upwards unsteadily, making his way towards the source of the sound. He felt for the cave wall with his whiskers, balancing inelegantly against the stone. He makes his way towards it. It feels like he’s making no progress, but where else does he have to go?

Eventually, it grew bright enough to see the faint outline of his own white paws against the slate gray stone. The light was faintly blue. He continued to walk towards it.

It grew brighter and brighter. He kept walking towards it, and the sound of rushing water only got stronger.

The sound grew into a roar, and he emerged into a chamber of blinding blue light. When his eyes adjusted, he saw the source fo the sound - a massive waterfall, pouring down from the back of the room. Near to it, a cat sat.

Or at least, he thought it was a cat. It didn’t look quite like any cat he had seen before. It stood deathly still, frozen like a creature made of ice. It was furless, as far as he could see, with a mottled pelt of grey and pink. All he could smell was stone and water - no scent of cat at all. He walked forward carefully, not wanting to startle it. Suddenly, though he didn’t think he had made any sound, it craned its head towards him. Wide, bulging grey eyes opened towards him.

“Ah. Beetlewhisker.” He rasped. The cat moved towards him in startling, unsteady movements, until he was standing barely a tail-length in front of him. He tilted his head upwards.

“What do you want,” He crowed, his voice barely audible over the roaring water.

Beetlwhisker paused - he. What does he want?

“To go back.” He whispered. Blind eyes fixated on him harshly, seeming to look straight into him despite the lack of sight.

The hairless tom scoffed, a harsh sound, like claws against rock.

“And you think you deserve that? After what you’ve done? You do not listen to your ancestors. You were given advice, and you chose not to take it.”

He shrank into himself. Whatever this is, wherever he is - he’s done it to himself. If he’s doomed to wander this tunnel forever, then he -

“But.” The tom hissed, revealing a mouth of fangs nearly ground down flat.

“Your time is not yet up. Whether I think you deserve it or not -“ He glared harshly, scratching a new line into the stone beneath him with every word. “You must go back. To preserve the way of the things.” And suddenly, the blue light which had been raising over the top of the waterfall shined impossibly bright, taking over his vision. His legs grew unsteady beneath him, and everything once again faded into an indiscernible mix of colors.

——

”No cat leaves the Dark Forest unless I say so. Your loyalty is to us now.” Brokenstar hissed, a nonexistent wound dripping crimson onto the too-real forest floor.

Beetlewhisker jolted, struck by a sickening feeling that he’d seen this before, based on nothing but no less strong for it. He glanced over his shoulder, then back to the huge brown tom. “You’re right, Brokenstar. I ... I don’t know what got into me. You’re right.” Brokenstar took a satisfied step back, something like approval showing on his face.

Beetlewhisker felt cold.

**Author's Note:**

> this dialogue sucks but 95% of it is copied directly from the last hope so if you have a problem take it directly to god/erin hunter  
> god warrior cat names are so stupid sometimes. like at least “fireheart” or “tigerclaw” sounds like a cat but BEETLEWHISKER? every day i suffer. every day i have the terrible cat knowledge that ive gained reading nearly 80 of these books torment me from the depths of my subconscious.  
> sorry that the formatting on this sucks sometime im gonna fix it by pressing the tab key like 200 times but my laptop is dead


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